The Life and Times of

Mercy for Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9)

Every election year we brace for another barrage of “campaign promises,” which we know will be forgotten as quickly as the candidate reaches office. We don't even expect him or her to keep them, and if they do, we are shocked. David is a man who makes promises and keeps them. Before he became Israel's king, he made promises to both Jonathan and Saul. To Jonathan, he promised to protect his life and to show lovingkindness to his house forever (1 Samuel 20:12-17). To Saul, he vowed not to cut off his descendants after him (1 Samuel 24:21-22). Now Saul and Jonathan are dead, and David is king. How easy it would be for David to forget his commitment.

David not only remembers his commitment to Saul, he goes far beyond it. To Saul, David promised he would not harm his descendants. To Jonathan, David covenanted to show lovingkindness. It seems as though all of Saul's descendants are dead. No descendant of Saul approaches David, seeking his favor. David is now king, and he is in a position to carry out his promise to Jonathan. All he needs is one of his descendants. David inquires as to whether there is a descendant of Saul to whom he may show kindness for Jonathan's sake (verse 1). In verse 3, David speaks of this act of kindness as the “kindness of God.” It certainly is.

No one among David's servants is aware of any living descendant of Saul. Ziba, a servant of Saul, is remembered, and he is summoned to David's presence. You can imagine his uneasiness at being summoned to the palace of David. Is David like other kings, simply seeking to remove any vestige of Saul's kingdom? Is David seeking to do away with Ziba and his family? The thought surely crosses Ziba's mind, more than once! How relieved he must be to hear David's question, “Is there no yet anyone of the house of Saul to whom I may show the kindness of God?” (verse 3). There is indeed. Ziba remembers Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan. There is one son, Ziba informs David, but he is handicapped. He is crippled in both feet. Surely David will not want him to be the one to whom he will show favor.

The author of 1 and 2 Samuel has surely prepared us for this moment. In 2 Samuel 4, he rehearses the account of Ish-bosheth's death at the hand of two of his servants. In the midst of this ugly account, the author seems to drop in verse 4, parenthetically informing the reader of Mephibosheth's injury. The incident seems out of place. But the author is preparing the way for our text. On the way, he tells us another story in chapter 5 of the taking of Jebus. Three times in this chapter the word “lame” occurs (verses 6 and 8). The men of Jebus are so confident they boast that even the “blind and the lame” could repulse David's attack on their city. When David took the city, it became a saying among some that “the blind and the lame shall not come into the house” (verse 8).

Now, we find David seeking a descendant of Saul and of Jonathan to whom he may show favor. The only candidate is Jonathan's crippled son. If it was axiomatic that no lame person would enter a house in Jerusalem, surely no lame person would enter the palace. But that is precisely what happens. David summons Mephibosheth, who is living in Lo-debar, a city east of the Jordan and beyond Mahanaim. It must therefore have been close to Ammon, near Israel's border with Ammon. It appears that Mephibosheth is living as far away from David and Jerusalem as he can, feeling like a marked man who will be put to death if he comes too close to Jerusalem. When he presents himself to David, he prostrates himself before him as David's servant. David notes his fear and puts his mind at rest. He intends Mephibosheth no harm; his intent is to show him kindness for the sake of his father Jonathan. He promises to restore to Mephibosheth all the land which had been his father's, and which he had evidently lost sometime after the death of Saul and his father. Not only will David restore all that to which Mephibosheth is heir, he will make him his regular guest at the palace.

Mephibosheth is overcome with gratitude and relief, falling prostrate before David once again, calling attention to the fact that he is but a “dead dog.” David used this very expression to refer to himself in speaking to King Saul (1 Samuel 24:14). David was attempting to convince Saul that he posed no real threat, no matter what others might be telling him. It seems fairly clear that Mephibosheth is calling attention to his physical handicap. A man who cannot walk can hardly serve as a king, leading his army into battle:

6 But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes. 7 Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to gather up scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me.” So they brought him to Jerusalem and he died there (Judges 1:6-7).

Kings were incapacitated by cutting off their thumbs and their big toes. They could not stand or run in battle, nor could they grip their weapons adequately. When one king prevailed over another by winning in battle, he would cut off the thumbs and the big toes of his opponent, and then keep them as a kind of showpiece. These kings would sit under the table of the king, getting the scraps, it would seem. They were not honored guests; they were trophies of war. David would have none of this with regard to Mephibosheth. He does not want him at his table as a subjected foe, but as an honored guest, the son of his beloved friend, Jonathan. It is an amazing act of grace.

David issues orders to Ziba, instructing him that all that once belonged to Saul now belongs to Mephibosheth and should be restored to him. David makes Ziba and his sons (who apparently have been emancipated by Saul's death and the death of his sons) the servants of Mephibosheth. Ziba graciously accepts this turn of events. From this time on, Mephibosheth is David's honored guest, eating regularly at his table, not as a defeated or humiliated foe, but as one of David's sons (verse 11).